Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography/Aecae
AECAE (Αίκαι: Eth. Aecanus: Troja), a town of Apulia mentioned both by Polybius and Livy, during the military operations of Hannibal and Fabius in that country. In common with many other Apulian cities it had joined the Carthaginians after the battle of Cannae, but was recovered by Fabius Maximus in B.C. 214, though not without a regular siege. (Pol. iii. 88 ; Liv. xxiv. 20.) Pliny also enumerates the Aecani smong the inland towns of Apulia (iii. 11); but its position is more clearly determined by the Itineraries, which place it on the Appian Way between Equus Tuticus and Herdonia, at a distance of 18 or 19 miles from the latter city. (Itin. Ant. p. 116; Itin. Hier. p. 610; the Tab. Peut. places it between Equus Tuticus and Luceria, but without giving the distances.) This interval exactly accords with the position of the modern city of Troja, and confirms the statements of several chroniclers of the middle ages, that the latter was founded about the beginning of the eleventh century, on the ruins of the ancient Aecae. Cluverius erroneously identified Aecae with Accadia, a village in the mountains S. of Bovino; but his error was rectified by Holstenius. Troja is an episcopal see, and a place of some consideration; it stands on a hill of moderate elevation, rising above the fertile plain of Puglia, and is 9 miles S. of Lucera, and 14 SW. of Foggia. (Holsten. Not. tn Cluver. p. 271; Romanelli, vol. ii. p. 227; Giustaniani, Diz. Geogr. vol. ix. p. 260.)